Winifred Gallagher, author of House Thinking and The Power of Place, stopped by Zócalo’s offices to discuss her latest book, Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, which argues that learning to focus on the right things can make for a more meaningful life. Below, Gallagher explains what attention is and why it’s so crucial, and whether distractions and the devices that create them – smart phones, iPods – can ever be helpful.